Appraising is typically a long term career. Requirements to become a licensed appraiser have become more difficult than ever in the past. That's why it goes without question these days that real estate appraisal can unquestionably be called a profession as opposed to a trade. In our field, as with any profession, we have a strict ethical code.

We have a lot of responsibilities as appraisers, but our chief duty is to our clients. Typically, in residential practice, the appraiser's client is the lender ordering the appraisal, and often the appraisal is ordered by a third party the lender has brought in to maintain independence. It's important to know that many details pertaining to an assignment are to be discussed with the appraiser's client. So, as a homeowner, if you would like a copy of an appraisal report, you generally should obtain it through your lender instead of the appraiser.

Other responsibilities include accurate figures appropriate to the parameters of the assignment, acquiring and maintaining a respectable level of competency and education, and naturally, the appraiser must bear a professional demeanor. Here at Cole Appraisal & Consulting, LLC, we take these ethical responsibilities very seriously.

Appraisers will frequently be required to consider the interests of third parties, such as homeowners, sellers and buyers, or others. Normally the third parties are specifically defined in the appraisal report. An appraiser's fiduciary duty is restricted to those third parties who the appraiser knows, based on the scope of work or other things in the framework of the order.

Cole Appraisal & Consulting, LLC has an established reputation for completing appraisals with the highest of ethics. Contact us today to learn more.

Appraisers also have rules outside of boundaries of with whom we share information For example, appraisers must keep their work files for at least five years - at Cole Appraisal & Consulting, LLC you can rest assured that we adhere to that rule.

Cole Appraisal & Consulting, LLC holds itself to the industry standards and guidelines set in place for ethics. We won't accept anything less from ourselves. Working on assignments where our fee is dependent on our value conclusion is never an option. That means we can't agree to do an appraisal report and get paid only if the loan closes. Anyone should be able to see that fabricating a property's value to achieve a higher paycheck is unethical! We just don't do it.

Finally, the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice clearly defines a violation in ethics as the acceptance of an assignment that is contingent on "the reporting of a pre-determined result (e.g., opinion of value)", "a direction in assignment results that favors the cause of the client", or "the amount of a value opinion" as well as other situations. We diligently follow these rules to the letter which means you can be assured we are going above and beyond to provide an unbiased determination of the home or property value.

With Cole Appraisal & Consulting, LLC, you can be assured of 100 percent ethical, honest service.